Coolest bird ever? I think so! [via reddit.com]

Forecast for tomorrow here in sunny Melbourne: 41C. Since I still can’t convert in my head, Google tells me “41 degrees Celsius = 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit.” Crap!

Update 31-Dec-2007: Well it only hit 40.9C (105.6F). Even after living most of my life in Texas, I don’t think I have ever experienced a day so hot! It was like sticking your head in an oven or, when the wind blew, a convection oven.

Must read article of the week. If I tried to pull specific quotes out of this, I’d end up reproducing the whole article so, just go read it. And here’s a link to the whole thing all on one page so you can avoid VF’s annoying paging (also handy for avoiding the Padma distraction!).

I spent some time researching online brokerage services to park our stocks, retirement and education accounts. I was initially planning to go with Vanguard because I appreciate their reputation and investor/owner structure. But I balked at their fees and decided to do a real comparison. There are many more contenders then I expected; here’s an overview of what I gathered from their websites. These companies are all considered discount brokers and hence, I didn’t even consider Vanguard in the end.

1. No minimun opening balance if you set up an automatic monthly transfer of at least $100.
2. No annual fee if balance is greater than $25,000.
3. This is the standard rate; cheaper for high balance accounts.
4. Plus $.015 for each share over 1,000.
5. Plus $.015 for each share over 2,000.
6. No minimun opening balance if you set up an automatic monthly transfer of at least $200.
7. Minimum opening balance is $15 if you set up automatic monthly transfer.
8. Must agree to online delivery of statements and transaction confirmations; $25 annual fee applies otherwise.
9. Minimum opening balance is $500 for electronically funded accounts; no minimum for accounts funded otherwise.

So, that information is nice but lacks the subjective view of service and quality. A quick google search got me a couple of comparisons from The Motley Fool and SmartMoney and a nice overview of all the major players.

So, based on that few hours of research, I’m dumping Vanguard and going with Scottrade. They’re cheap, have the account types I need, some decent resources, and are relatively well-known and respected. Done and done.

Speaking of food, I’ve been meaning to write about some of the burger joints in town but why not start with a quick post about our homemade work of art from last week. These bad boys were awesome…

Best burgers ever! Just in case you were wondering, here’s a quick rundown of what you’re looking at:

• pattys are just beef with a little salt and pepper, pan-fried since we don’t have a grill
• grilled onions
• homemade mayonnaise (much easier than you think; tastes better but doesn’t keep long)
• lettuce
• cheddar cheese
• dijon mustard
• all between two slices of sprouted wheat bread
• with some homemade steak fries to round it out

These things were so good, even Twyla ate ‘em…

Deadwood; Season 3, Episode 5… The end of that fight scene was so gruesome I completely missed the dialog in the entire next scene and had to rewind.

This article by Michael Pollan begins with the observation that the poorest members of our society tend to be the fattest; a contradiction never seen before in human history. All indicators point to bad governance of food production policy. Essentially, US government subsidies, through the farm bill in particular, disproportionately go to producers of fat and sugar dense ingredients for processed foods rather than to fresh foods (i.e. vegetables other than corn, soy, and milk).

“…the real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (a k a liquid corn) declined by 23 percent. The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow.”

But the frustrating angle here is that it is much easier (and would be much cheaper without the subsidies) to deliver the healthier whole foods.

“Compared with a bunch of carrots, a package of Twinkies… is a highly complicated, high-tech piece of manufacture, involving no fewer than 39 ingredients, many themselves elaborately manufactured, as well as the packaging and a hefty marketing budget.”

We eat very little processed foods in our house but I’ve been paying particular attention to food labels here in Australia. The first and most glaring difference with the US is the virtual absence of corn syrup, particularly the high-fructose variety; you will find it in some foods but it’s rare. It’s much more common to find plain ‘ol sugar ^[1][2]. Once again US policy, this time by way of import tarriffs, favors an over-processed (it’s essentially a chemical), unhealthy, and possibly dangerous product over perhaps the cheapest food ingredient in the world.

1. Yes, refined sugar is highly processed and not good for you either but it’s obviously better than the alternative.
2. Anyone else notice “Mexican Coke” becoming much more popular… at least in Texas? It’s made with sugar, not corn syrup like the US version.

Update 05-Nov-2007: More on this topic… First, an excellent article on the recent Farm Bill reform debacle in the US House.

“[The Farm Bill is] a horrible deal. It redistributes our taxes to millionaire farmers as well as to millionaire “farmers” like David Letterman, David Rockefeller and the owners of the Utah Jazz. It contributes to our obesity and illegal-immigration epidemics and to our water and energy shortages. It helps degrade rivers, deplete aquifers, eliminate grasslands, concentrate food-processing conglomerates and inundate our fast-food nation with high-fructose corn syrup.”

And the trailer for a new documentary, King Corn.

I think this is the best web page. I have ever seen. Before I found it, the only thing I knew about JSON was that it is considered an alternative to XML. I spent maybe three minutes browsing this page… mostly reviewing the syntax diagrams… and learned everything I need to know… for now. The fluff to content ratio is pretty damn close to 0.

Australians and New Zealanders offer two additions to this list, though they could just as easily be considered replacements for the Americano: (1) the short black and (2) the long black.

[via elrubendelmar.org]

The preferred version here in Australia is definitely the plain-ol’ latte… the skinny and soy varieties seem to be popular.